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Camden County reports $3.6M surplus at third-quarter review; sales-tax lag noted
Summary
Chief Financial Officer Lisa Lynch told commissioners the county had collected $40.7 million in revenues against $37 million in expenditures through March 31, 2026, generating about a $3.6 million positive variance; sales tax collections lagged at about 65%, and several funds and SPLOST projects were reviewed.
Chief Financial Officer Lisa Lynch presented Camden County's third-quarter financial review for the fiscal period ending March 31, 2026, at the June 16 commission meeting.
Lynch said the county's annual revenue budget is about $48.2 million and reported $40.7 million collected through the third quarter with $37 million in expenditures, producing roughly a $3.6 million positive variance compared with about $2.66 million the prior year at the same point. She reported line-item collection and expenditure rates: property taxes about 89.3%, prior-year taxes 94.2%, sales tax 65.3%, service charges 88.8% and courts 71.2%.
On expenditures she said salary and benefits rose from $18.4 million (previous year) to $19.6 million; employee health claims increased to $3.4 million; contracted services rose to $4.8 million. Lynch reviewed several enterprise and restricted funds, noting curbside collection receipts at about 72.1% and an excess of roughly $63,000, the emergency-telephone fund with a small deficit driven by higher expenditures, and a solid-waste authority reserve of about $7.5 million for required closure reserves.
She also detailed SPLOST 8 and SPLOST 9 project balances and ARPA spending: SPLOST 8 had collections and cumulative expenditures grouped among public safety radio, ambulances, court records, property acquisition and public health; SPLOST 9 collections were just beginning and include planned projects such as a public-safety complex and local park rehabilitation. ARPA had received $10.6 million, spent just over $9 million, with some encumbrances and a small set of projects remaining to be completed before the calendar-year deadline.
Commissioners asked for clarifications on court-records invoices and Lynch confirmed outstanding invoices (about $30,000 posted) and committed to providing more timely month-to-date reporting going forward.
No formal budget amendments were approved at the meeting; commissioners accepted the report and moved on to subsequent agenda items.
